How to make a Roman Shield for pretend play

After perusing large numbers of library books I knew a very popular project would be to make a Roman shield.  My boys love to pretend to be soldiers and fight the scary hordes of barbarians, or dryads.  For some reason dryads are frequent bad guys.

Supplies for a Roman shield toy (affiliate links):

Foam Board, Acrylic Paint, Duct Tape (I now buy these last 3 items in bulk supplies because my kids have discovered the joy of using them), paint brushes (I like this pack for the variety of brushes)

Super easy steps for Roman shield toy

First sketch out your shield design.  I was a lot more stubborn about our design for the standard than I was for the shields.  I just didn’t want to fight them on the shield, so I ended up with a unicorn, a vaguely Roman thing with the wrong colors, and something I’m not remembering without looking at it.  But a unicorn, the historian inside of me shriveled up a little as she painted it.  Shriveled.

Slowly paint your shield following your design.  A couple of pointers for painting this project:

• Paint the big huge areas first.
• Then go back and paint the details.
• Finally go back and fill in any bits that are messed up.

Create the handle for your Roman shield:

1. Tear off two strips about 12 inches long.
2. Fold those strips in half.
3. Place those strips on top of 2 strips about 18-24 inches long.
4. Tape the two strips onto the back of your shield leaving a loop large enough for the child’s arm to fit through.
5. Reinforce the handles with a patchwork pattern of duct tape.

You now have a very fun Roman shield to play with.

Tomorrow we’ll make the sword so you have a properly equipped soldier to not just defend, but attack his enemy.

For the rest of our Roman posts head over to Hands on Roman History a part of the iHomeschool Network’s hopscotch.